GMO Quiz

Special thanks to Gregory Jaffe, the director of the Project on Biotechnology for the Center for Science in the Public Interest ("CSPI"), a non-profit consumer organization located in the United States, for his help fact checking our quiz. He is a recognized international expert on agricultural biotechnology and biosafety and has published numerous articles and reports on those topics.

4. In how many countries are GMO crops now cultivated?A. 9B. 18C. 25D. 34E. 56

According the the 2009 ISAAA survey, a "record 14 million small and large farmers in 25 countries planted 134 million hectares (330 million acres) in 2009, an increase of 7 percent or 9 million hectares (22 million acres) over 2008."

5. In which country are the most GMO crops grown?A. ChinaB. BrazilC. ArgentinaD. United StatesE. Canada

According to the ISAAA 2009 survey: "Of the 25 biotech crop countries (Germany discontinued in 2008 and Costa Rica joined in 2009), 16 were developing and nine industrial. Each of the following top eight countries grew more than 1 million hectares: USA (64.0 million hectares), Brazil (21.4), Argentina (21.3), India (8.4), Canada (8.2), China (3.7), Paraguay (2.2) and South Africa (2.1). The balance of 2.7 million hectares was grown by the following 17 countries, listed in decreasing order of hectarage; Uruguay, Bolivia, Philippines, Australia, Burkina Faso, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania, Poland, Costa Rica, Egypt, and Slovakia. Accumulated hectarage of biotech crops for the period 1996 to 2009 reached almost 1 billion hectares (949.9 million hectares or 2.3 billion acres)."

8. What do biotechnology companies call the process of genetically manipulating plants by adding multiple genes for the same or different traits, such as higher yield and herbicide tolerance?A. trait stackingB. genetic retoolingC. DNA-liftD. gattacazation

9. What flower leant a gene to rice to synthesize the production of beta carotene in "golden rice"?A. TulipB. DaffodilC. RoseD. SunflowerE. Freesia

"Golden rice" was developed by two European scientists, Dr. Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Dr. Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg in Germany to help alleviate Vitamin A deficiencies. Vitamin A deficiency is estimated to affect millions of children around the world. Anywhere from a quarter to half-a-million children in developing countries become blind each year owing to vitamin A deficiency, with the highest prevalence in Southeast Asia and Africa. Two daffodil genes and one bacterial gene were added to the rice DNA to produce pro-Vitamin A. The resulting plants are normal looking except for the grain's yellow color, which denotes the presence of beta-carotene.

10. What is the concern of anti-GMO activists in Europe and the United States?A. Unforeseen long-term effects of genetic manipulationB. Genetic manipulation in humans as a result of consuming GMO foodC. Control of food supply by a small number of seed producersD. Insufficient testing of GMO crop side effectsE. All of the above